PVC camera stand sea trials

The cheesy new PVC camera stand got to go out on the strait with the new video camera.

Camera stand all the way forward.

It was too hard to reach the stand when it was under the foremost bungees, and it was almost in the way when under the bungees right in front of the cockpit.

All the way back.

It's hard to get the 1/4" camera-mount screw vertically aligned with the clamp, so the clamp is a bit to one side.  The stand ought to be a little higher so that the clamp isn't resting on the deck.

I can tell from the videos I took with the camera on the stand that it isn't entirely stationary.  This might be because the inner tube on the conduit elbow isn't glued down, and it's slipping.

I took the old Kodak EasyShare Sport, attached to a clip that fits on the end of the paddle, to see how it would work for self-portraits.  

Selfie-clip prototype II.

It needs some work -- the lens is so close to the paddle shaft that the paddle and drip rings intrude (and sometimes steal the focus), and the leash I had the camera on wasn't long enough to let me position the camera as far from the boat as I could.

Sea Eagle 330 inflatable

A year ago I bought a couple of used Sea Eagle 330 inflatable boats.  The Sea Eagle company calls this a "kayak," but I think "canoe" would be a better term.

The Sea Eagle 330 at Elkhorn Slough.

These boats had been used on rivers, and each one needed repairs.  I had the chance to go to Elkhorn Slough in the spring, and brought the one that I thought was finally seaworthy (I wasn't able to bring a hardshell kayak, and the Folbot still needed a couple of small repairs).

The Sea Eagle doesn't perform well compared to a hardshell kayak, and maybe not quite as well as the Stearns inflatable kayak I used to have.  It doesn't track well, and it takes a lot of effort to paddle against the wind.  A lot of water drips into the boat because there's no spray skirt, or any convenient ways to jury-rig a spray skirt, which isn't such a big deal, but is annoying.

On the upside, it's very portable, it's fairly easy to inflate and get to the water, it has room for more stuff than the Stearns had.  It's significantly lighter than a hardshell kayak, so carrying it to the beach is less of a pain.  It's easy to make time downwind, although you pay for it when you paddle to windward.  The original seats were missing when I bought it, so I was using a kid's paddleboard for a seat without a backrest.
 
Elkhorn Slough isn't especially pretty (although I didn't see very much of it), but the many sea otters, sea lions, and seals make it interesting.  There are also lots of people, first-timers and experts and everyone else,  in kayaks.  It was windy enough that I couldn't paddle far inland, but I didn't have a problem in the harbor on the north side of the slough.

Tourists annoying a dock full of sea lions.

So:

The Sea Eagle 330 is not a terrific boat for flat water paddling, but it's much better than nothing.  For what I paid for it (<$30) it's an exceptional boat.  If you were considering buying a brand new one, you might want to consider something else if you really want a kayak rather than a canoe.  A Crazy Creek type of camping chair over a type IV PFD (boat cushion) might be a good replacement for each inflatable chair it's supposed to have, and some kind of simple plastic skeg glued onto the the bottom would probably improve performance.  The 330 might be okay for short camping trips inland, unless you have to keep up with other people in hardshell boats.

It might also perform better with a rigid frame.  I was thinking of making one from old windsurfing booms, but I don't think that will ever get done, unless I end up using this boat a lot.

Elkhorn Slough is worth visiting for the all the sea otters and other marine mammals.  The scenery is (at best) only marginally better than that on the Petaluma or Napa rivers, and probably not as good as Big Break or the Suisun marshes.

If the sea otters weren't there then I wouldn't recommend making a two-hour drive to get there to someone who hadn't seen the local sloughs first.  You can see river otters in the delta and the marshes, and seals and sea lions locally in SF Bay, San Pablo Bay, Suisun Bay, the Carquinez Strait, the Oakland estuary, probably in Richardson Bay, and so on, although in much smaller numbers than at Elkhorn Slough.

Canoe paddle

Another incomplete paddle.  If I ever have a real workbench again then maybe I'll finish shaping it and put some kind of finish on it, but I don't think I'll bother to finish this project until I get the canoe completely repaired.

Cedar, white pine or yellow pine, poplar, and I-forget-what-else, all salvaged.

Re-purposed cargo net

I got the yellow-black shock by disassembling a cargo net from Urban Ore, and used it to replace the old black cord aft of the kayak's rear hatch.

The cord on the upper left of the photo was facing down, so it still has some color.

 The stopper knots make it easier to shove the end of a paddle under the cord, and easier to adjust cord's tension, and less of a hassle to remove the cord altogether if I want to use it for something else.

After a couple of years of use the color has faded almost to white, and it's getting a bit scruffy, but it's still stretchy and useable.

Homemade paddles, another camera stand, & whatever

When I got my first kayak I tried making a spray skirt, even tho I really had no idea what I was doing, and I started making a homemade wood paddle, just for the sake of doing it, I guess.  I had only a slightly better idea of how to make a paddle than I had of how to make a spray skirt.

 The shafts are from closet poles, and are probably douglas fir.  The blades are from marine plywood left over from an old project, and the blades' shape was traced from a cheap aluminum paddle.  The blades are epoxied to the shafts, and have a few stainless wood screws as well.  A length of aluminum tubing from an old paddle if fitted to the end of one shaft so that I'd have a two-part paddle.  The wood finish is tung oil, and there's epoxy on the blade tips.

Although I started it a few years ago it's never been completed.  The shafts ought to be thinned, and maybe the blades should be reshaped, and I don't want to bother with it. 

The back of one paddle blade.

The unfinished wood paddle.

The aluminum tubing joint thing.  The inner-tube cover was meant to retain a pin or clip that would hold the other shaft in.

The marine ply I used was old and stained, but doesn't look too bad.

I started making a greenland paddle just so I could try using one when I was finished.  I used maple, poplar, walnut, and teak scraps that were already hanging around, but next time I won't use as much hardwood.  The redwood was from a local home-improvement place.

This paddle (like the other one) gets put aside for long periods, and probably won't be done anytime soon.

Ugly scarf joint.  If the paddle ever gets done I might put
something on the middle of the shaft to hide it.

The homemade spray skirt was put aside when I got a nylon touring skirt, and I've been waiting for another old wetsuit to come along so I'll have enough material to finish the waist. 

Homemade spray skirt (with a too-small tunnel) that came with my first hard-shell kayak.

Homemade, still unfinished, inside-out spray skirt made from an old wetsuit.

The camera stand should be plugged with some kind of closed cell foam so it will float.  I'll probably use some foam sheets from an old life jacket for that, and then test it to see if it's buoyant enough to keep the camera from sinking.  If it isn't I can add foam to the outside of the stand, or put the camera PFD on the camera's lanyard.

The steel spring in the cheap plastic C-clamp will probably be ruined by salt exposure, but the clamp was already broken, so I don't really care.  The camera will be closer to the clamp (and so a bit less prone to going out of alignment) when I find a stainless or nylon screw the right length.  (And a retaining clip to keep the screw from falling out.)

I could also put the bilge pump on the deck forward of the cockpit, and clamp the camera to that instead of using a stand.  I think the convenience of using the stand will offset the annoyance of having extra gear, and the camera won't be in the way if I need the pump.

Camera, clamp, and PVC stand.

By having the camera mounted on the clamp I can also clamp it to the end of
the paddle and use it for self-portraits at more than arm's length.

And there's other stuff that I just never bother to write up, like the kayak seat made from an old PFD, the Seascape .5 project boat, canoe repairs, the folding kayak project, and re-purposed gear.  Is anyone else interested in that?

Free Spirit 2 tent instruction sheet

People seldom bother to put stuff like this online, where I can find it when I'm trying to find out about something that I got at a garage sale.  So, here's the tent that I bought at a thrift store recently, and both sides of the instruction sheet that came with it, since someone will eventually be looking for this info.

 

The actual Diamond Brand Free Spirit 2 tent.

There are holes in the page because the tent's previous owner put both a claw hammer and a wheel weight hammer in the tent's storage bag.  The bag and the instructions were damaged, but the tent was, surprisingly, unscathed.

It's not that anyone really needs these instructions, but they can save some wasted effort.

Berryessa photos

 I took my kayak to Lake Berryessa recently.  If you go there on a weekday in April it's peaceful: no speedboats, no water skiers, no PWCs.  There are still dozens of fishing boats, but most of them are stationery and quiet.

The Oak Shores free day use area seems to be a good place to launch.  The (free) boat ramp at Capell Cove was full of pickup trucks and trailers, although there were some empty parking spaces meant for cars without trailers.  The Berryessa Paddle Guide has more information about launch sites and destinations.

 

Electric trolling motors only between the Big Island, Small Island, and the west shore.  I had the whole area to myself.

On the west side of the islands that are near the middle of the lake.

The water isn't very high, and there's a bathtub ring all around the reservoir.  Those are the tracks of deer and other animals in the mud near the lower center of the photo.

I combined exposures for this image.  My cheap EasyShare Sport camera isn't able to take a shot like this without overexposing the sky or underexposing the foreground.

The Oak Shores Day Use Area has a long concrete walkway from the parking lot to the water, which is meant for launching kayaks and other cartop boats.  It's easy to get the boat to the water using a cart, but the water at the end of the ramp is so shallow that it's hard to launch without getting your shoes wet.

The day use area.

I hadn't been to Berryessa in a long time, and it's more scenic than I remembered.  I always think of the place as having too many loud cars, loud boats, and loud people, but I guess in the off-season it's quiet and uncrowded.

Once in a while the shoreline is interesting.

Other photos from this trip are posted on flickr.com.